Are you willing to bare it all for authenticity and a good story?

For many of us telling our own story means one of two things

either we would no-way, no-how share those shameful, ugly things that we are having difficulty owning for ourselves let alone sharing them in public, destroying our credibility and reputation, not to mention our equanimity and mental health

or

“How could I possibly have anything to share? I’m just ordinary – nothing special ever happens to me.  Besides, if I do, they’ll think I’m big-noting myself and I’ll never engage or persuade them.”

Once upon a time? – 5 inspired Ways to Start your Story

Stories are a wonderful tool for speakers, marketers, sellers, anyone who wants to communicate.

Stories are especially powerful if we need to influence, to lead, to establish ourselves as credible, an authority, the person to hire, to trust, to follow.

We know that, you and I.

And possibly the most potent part of that power is the beginning of the story.

The first line. The first sentence.

The start.

This is where we draw our audiences, our readers, our listeners into the story – establish the story trance with its power to take them with us, unresisting, and thoroughly engaged.

And for so many speakers, marketers, content creators, that potency is lessened or lost, mostly because they never realised the power they had there.

Maybe they gave it no thought, no preparation.

Maybe they followed in the footsteps of the latest superstar/formulaic manipulator.

Maybe they just didn’t know.

And it is difficult, even knowing that powerful potential,

maybe because we know how important it can be, to know how, where to start.

Before I give you five ways you can start your story, let me say that this is not where you start writing or creating the story, necessarily.

You need to plot out the story – use a storyboard if you need to. Plot it, then, according to the need you have for the story – the point you are making, the flow of the whole speech, piece of content, presentation.

At that point it may become apparent that you have a beginning for your story –

it may be the middle, a flashback, or the beginning chronologically, but it must align with the purpose and flow of the story.

The beginning should introduce a new world – the world you are taking your audience into.

It should do 2 of three things

1. establish your voice – introduce the tone of your writing/speaking

These are the first words of the novel “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabakov

“Lolita, light of my life; fire of my loins, my sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta, the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three on the teeth. Lo.lee.ta.”

2. introduce the character

Elizabeth Gilbert at the start of her TED talk, “Success, failure and the drive to keep creating” began,

“So, a few years ago I was at JFK Airport about to get on a flight, when I was approached by two women who I do not think would be insulted to hear themselves described as tiny old tough-talking Italian-American broads”

3. The conflict/story thesis

Sylvia Plath from “The Bell Jar

“It was a queer sultry summer, summer they electrocuted Rosenberg and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York”.

or

Amy Mullins in her TED talk “The opportunity in adversity”

“I’d like to share with you a discovery that I made a few months ago while writing an article for Italian Wired. I always keep my thesaurus handy whenever I’m writing anything,but I’d already finished editing the piece,and I realized that I had never once in my life looked up the word “disabled” to see what I’d find.”

You will notice that they are introducing,

allowing a peek,

stimulating the appetite for more,

rather than giving large amounts of information.

Ok, here are

Five ways you can start your story

just five of the multitude of possibilities

that can stimulate your creativity, open up some options for you to consider.

1. Action  

Make it small.

From Elizabeth Garver’s book “The Body Shop”

“My mother had me sort the eyes”

2.  Description

From Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections

“The madness of an autumn prairie cold front coming through. You could feel it: something terrible was going to happen. The sun low in the sky, a minor light, a cooling star. Gust after gust of disorder. Trees restless, temperatures falling, the whole northern religion of things coming to an end. No children in the yards here. Shadows lengthened on yellowing zoysia. Red oaks and pin oaks and swamp white oaks rained acorns on houses with no mortgage. Storm windows shuddered in the empty bedrooms. And the drone and hiccup of a clothes dryer, the nasal contention of a leaf blower, the ripening of local apples in a paper bag, the smell of the gasoline with which Alfred Lambert had cleaned the paintbrush from his morning painting of the wicker love seat.”

3.  Flashback

Anand Giridharadas’  TED Talk “A tale of Two Americas and the mini-mart where they collided.”

He begins, “Where are you from?” said the pale, tattooed man,

the beginning of a story of a shocking attack at a Texas mini-mart that shattered the lives of two men: the victim and the attacker, that leads into a parable about the two paths an American life can take, and a powerful call for reconciliation.

4.  The unexpected

Ian Banks “The Crow Road

“It was the day my grandmother exploded”

or George Orwell’s “1984

“It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13.”

 

5.  The truth

From J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan

“All children but one grow up.”

 

Many of these are examples from books, so they probably would not apply to your content or presentations, but,

and especially if you are using your own story,

they will give you some ideas of how you could extract the same sort of situation or description from your own experiences.

 

And a final thought – as with any speech, presentation, story, piece of content,

you will walk away and come back to it with a fresh mind

and probably change the story entirely.

 

Enjoy!!

 

 

 


— 

 

There’s more to shining your light, as a leader, a model, a speaker, a trainer, a coach, than being radiant

Are you a radiant being?

Would you describe yourself as radiant?

 

I don’t and I’m not. Not always.

 

Sometimes, when I am excited about something, I suppose I could be described as radiant, and it’s how I feel.

 

But sometimes I am rather less than excited and radiant.

 

There have been times in all of our lives, times that we would probably rather forget,

times that we would prefer not to share,

when we were certainly not excited and radiant.

 

And yet, if we tell that story, share it, that story of being bored – we get results way beyond just radiating excitement.

 

Others can accept their boredom more readily.

 

We create deep connections with potential friends, clients, partners based on this shared experience,

and the vulnerability we show.

 

And if we tell the story of what we did with the boredom,

then we give others a lesson they can implement –

our children, our students, our audiences and clients,

more motivational than any theoretical presentation,

or simple, unequivocal instruction,  could ever be.

 

Are you a leader, a speaker, a trainer?  Tell that story!

Are you designing a legacy?  Tell that story!

Are you looking for your lost mojo, resilience, strength?  Tell that story!

 

Make me the hero of your story

Tell me a story and

I will relate to your hero,

be your hero,

learn from your hero’s journey.

If the learning is irrelevant and I cannot continue to relate,

the story is lost,

wasted.

 

Make me, (and I am

your client,

your student,

your prospect),

my possibilities,

my needs

and my problems the prototype for your hero

whether that hero be a raccoon, a robot or a real person,

and I will relate,

I will follow you through the story and to the inspiration, persuasion, learning that you want for me.

Speakers – build your brand using stories

Stories are a subtly powerful way to support your speaking outcomes.

You can use them to support the points you want to make, but you can also use them to position yourself in the eyes of your audience.

When you speak you need to be seen as an expert, though an approachable expert, and the audience needs to understand you and your why.

They need to know why they should listen to you and why they should do what you expect from them at the conclusion of your speech.

You also have an opportunity to establish yourself and your brand in their memories, through the power of storytelling.

Here are 4 specific ways you can use storytelling to build your brand…  Read the article at my public speaking blog

Those who tell the stories rule the world. Which will you choose?

Those who tell the stories.

It’s a powerful statement this.

There’s a mystical, mythical element to it, being a native American saying.

I find it interesting that Plato said much the same thing “Those who tell the stories rule society.”

 

Two such disparate cultures and societies recognising the power of story.

Just about anyone who writes about story, talks about story, ends up using this quote.

And certainly at the level at which most people think about this statement … anyone who tells the stories will make money in business, and rule the world that way.

Story is a currency recognised the world over.

It is a powerful marketing tool, the difference, sometimes, between a profit and a loss.

But looking at it a different way – looking at the leaders, the rulers, those who rule the world.

They lead, they rule because they are able to tell our stories for us.

We need a story to make sense of life.

We need a story to make sense of our culture.

We need a story to make sense of our world.

We need someone to lead us forward by telling our story, what is really happening, how things are going to be.

When there is a movement for change in our culture, a mass discontent with the way things are, in our world, it will succeed because someone is able to lead it forward by articulating for that mass of people, what is really happening and how it will progress, tells the story about it.

What story are your leaders telling?

Let us choose the leaders who tell the story of our highest aspirations, not our lowest common denominators of fear and greed, ego and power.

Let us then buy from the marketers who tell the story of our highest aspirations, not our lowest common denominators of laziness and competitiveness.

Futurist Rolf Jensen said “The highest paid person of the 21st century will be the storyteller.”

Let’s choose whom we pay to tell our stories, and choose well.

5 Ways you can make leadership easier and more effective with story

 

Every day you put yourself on the line as a leader.

Don’t you?

Every day you feel the weight of responsibility.

Don’t you?

Every day you need your team contributing to the organisation.

Don’t you?

Of course you do.

You don’t, you can’t, protect yourself at the expense of others.

You don’t, you can’t, pass off the responsibility and, worse yet, blame someone else.

You don’t, you can’t, bully your team into working.

Because it’s so much easier and more effective with story.

 1.  After all it’s free and it’s quick.  Think about the bottom line in this.

You don’t have to pay a consultant/trainer/motivator to come in to explain the organisation culture,

to motivate your team,

to train in how best to get the job done,

to communicate the bad news,

to establish your credibility.

2.  You have a powerful persuasive tool, that guarantees instant engagement.

You don’t have to use bullying.

You don’t have to pull rank.

You don’t have to have enforced motivational days that your team recognise for what they are – a day to relax and ignore.

3.  You don’t have to keep repeating yourself.  Your messages become memorable.

The basics of your organisational culture are retained.

The training is remembered.

The motivation is embedded.

The engagement ensured that.

The story structure ensured that.

The stories you chose ensured that.

4.  You can be real

natural

authentic

even vulnerable … within limits.

Real, natural, authentic, vulnerable (within limits) makes you more likable, more respected, more believable, more credible, more persuasive

and it’s easier,

especially if bullying and/or pulling rank and/or using endless theory and statistics are not your natural bent.

5.  Your team, your customers, your prospects can make sense of your organisation.

They will know automatically what your culture is like,

what your brand really stands for,

what it is like to do business/work with/rely on you.

They will know your why.

All without sleazy or incomprehensible marketing.

And they will know it at a very deep level.

 

 

If you are a leader, Your story matters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More Business

“Every great leader is a great storyteller,” says Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner.

According to master storytellers Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman, storytelling is a lot like running. Everyone knows how to do it, but few of us ever break the four-minute mile. What separates the great runners from the rest? The greats know not only how to hit every stride, but how every muscle fits together in that stride so that no effort is wasted and their goals are achieved. World-class runners know how to run from the inside out. World-class leaders know how to tell a story from the inside out.

In The Elements of Persuasion, Maxwell and Dickman teach you how to tell stories too. They show you how storytelling relates to every industry and how anyone can benefit from its power.

Maxwell and Dickman use their experiences—both in the entertainment industry and as corporate consultants—to deliver a formula for winning stories. All successful stories have five basic components: the passion with which the story is told, a hero who leads us through the story and allows us to see it through his or her eyes, an antagonist or obstacle that the hero must overcome, a moment of awareness that allows the hero to prevail, and the transformation in the hero and in the world that naturally results.

Let’s face it: leading is a lot more fun than following. Even if you never want to be a CEO or to change the world, you do want to have control over your own work and your own ideas. Ultimately, that is what the power of storytelling can give you.

You can buy the book from Amazon or Abe Books

“Always lead with a story,” they said. Not always the best advice for speakers

“Always lead with a story”.

I wonder who gave him that advice?

It sounds feasible, even powerful.

Stories ARE powerful.

They engage, build credibility, create an emotional tone, set the scene.

And all of those things are what is needed from a speech opening.

But they are not the only options for a speech opening, and sometimes they can be damaging.

Find out why and what to do about it in this article I wrote for the Pivotal Public Speaking blog … http://wp.me/p2V4KT-T7

Your story matters. Add bubbles

 

Your story matters.

It matters because you matter.

It matters because it can serve you.

What happens, then, if you add bubbles?

What are bubbles?

Fun?

Imagination?

A symbol of something else – dreams, beauty, the ethereal?

What happens if you add that to your story – fun, imagination, dreams, beauty, the ethereal?

Your story changes.

Now it has an element of fun/imagination/dreams/beauty/the ethereal – whatever it was that bubbles meant to you.

Now …

What does it mean to you if you think your story has that element – has always had it, or maybe will have it from now on?

Fun where maybe there was none.

Imagination where maybe you saw none.

Dreams – oops they were always there.  What if you recognised them, gave them validity and used the fact, for yourself, that they were there?

And …

What does it mean to someone else if you add that element to the story you tell about yourself.

What will they think if you let them know you have fun in your story,

if you let them know there is imagination where maybe they saw none,

dreams that you hadn’t even recognised for yourself, but that hold significance for that person?

Your story matters – add bubbles!